disable cat today! I work for a spay/neuter clinic and we had a young male cat that crashed from his Ketaset shot. He was dead for a while, not sure how long because I was not in the room when it happened. His person was not preparted to care for him and decided on euthanization and I said I would take him.

"Scout" right now is blind. He can stand and sit up and eat from a tilted dish. He knows when he needs to use his litter. He falls over when he tries to walk. He can move his toes and he will pull his paw back when I pinch a toe. He responds to his name by opening his green eyes.

So, he had some pred shots today to help with brain inflammation and I have a week's worth of pred pills. We had him on IV fluids most of the day too.

Poor Scout! Yesterday was awful. He was on O2 for a long time and when he came out to me in recovery, he was panting and kinda hyperventilating - this went on for hours. He would meow occasionally too - it did not sound good.

I still think Scout has a chance if I try to rehab him. I plan to make him walk and get his legs used to moving again. He reminds me of a stroke patient.

Does anyone else know what I should be doing? Massage? Reiki? Vitamins? Scout will also get lots of TLC....

Since his blindness is cortical (brain damage, not eye damage) there's a lot of hope there. To me, the rest sounds hopeful, too: hearing, recognizing somebody's talking to him and responding, feeling pain and responding. Is he eating? If not, I'd take that particularly slow because of the risk of aspiration and the fact that there's SO MUCH muscle control involved. I'd start with A/D or baby food and slowly go from there, pretty much like you would a human immediately post-stroke. That's essentially what he's had.

I'm impressed you got pred; unlike a lot of people, I find pred to be my friend, and I hope it makes a difference for him.

Have you seen the CH Kitty Club (catfamily.com)? The listserv is pretty active, too.

You might also check out our discussion below about kitty walkers and wheelchairs. It might be a page or 2 back by now, since the bb's so busy.

Good luck! (and don't forget to post pics. You can send them to Mark@handicappedpets.com for inclusion in the Photo Gallery.)

Since his blindness is cortical (brain damage, not eye damage) there's a lot of hope there. To me, the rest sounds hopeful, too: hearing, recognizing somebody's talking to him and responding, feeling pain and responding. Is he eating? If not, I'd take that particularly slow because of the risk of aspiration and the fact that there's SO MUCH muscle control involved. I'd start with A/D or baby food and slowly go from there, pretty much like you would a human immediately post-stroke. That's essentially what he's had.

I'm impressed you got pred; unlike a lot of people, I find pred to be my friend, and I hope it makes a difference for him.

Have you seen the CH Kitty Club (catfamily.com)? The listserv is pretty active, too.

You might also check out our discussion below about kitty walkers and wheelchairs. It might be a page or 2 back by now, since the bb's so busy.

Good luck! (and don't forget to post pics. You can send them to Mark@handicappedpets.com for inclusion in the Photo Gallery.)

are you the RoadRunner I know?
if you are, glad to see you here too.
if not, welcome and nice to meet new ppls

Scout is already doing better than Mimosa (who stopped breathing under anesthesia). Massage and PT will work wonders in helping the brain relearn how to move the body.
Is he eliminating ok?
Recovery seems to come in leaps, then plateaus, and sometimes veryvery gradual inclines.

You can read about Mimosa on my site, including a diary of her first months, if you don't mind the annoying popups that my webhost puts there.
(I'm working on moving the whole site to a pop up free place).

I actually gave him kitty toona with lots of vitamins and lysine. I use lysine for my kitty that has herpes, but I have found that lysine is just a really helpful supplement. I put an a/d mixture (mixed with pedialyte) on top of the toona. Scout wolfed it down. I will try and feed him again in an hour or two. He can eat from a tilted bowl. I get him going with a syringe of the a/d mixture, then I found that he eats really well from a spoon! Then I moved on to the little bowl.

Our clinic vet gave me the pred for him. I know that steriods, in small amounts can be ok and are used for so many things. I don't want to depress his immune system with the stuff, but I think he needs a steriodal anti-inflammatory right now. Scout takes his pill well, but I do "wash it down" with an eye dropper of Pet Tinic to get him to swallow. His swallow reflex is fine, he can pick up food with his teeth and chew and lap food with his tounge.

So I was right to think of him like a human who had a stroke.....my mom had a stroke in 1998 and I think I just recognized some things.

I can only guess that his cerebellum and motor cortex were affected, which is why he has no balance and has trouble walking. You think the occipital lobe thing could heal? His eyes LOOK great - bright green and clear. His pupils are dialated and mostly fixed, but I will have hope for his vision too. I already have a visually impaired kitty and he gets along fine tho....

I will check up on Mimosa. I think I am going to work on getting him to sit up and stay up first, tho I will move his legs so they keep active.

As far as I know, Scout died but was revived. This is better than the last kitty, Ramon, who came out to me in post-op basically dead. Ramon's heart was revived, but he was brain dead. I HATE this anesthesia stuff....

Scout's coloring is good - good gum and tongue color so I know he is getting enough oxygen on his own.

I will check up on Mimosa. I think I am going to work on getting him to sit up and stay up first, tho I will move his legs so they keep active.

As far as I know, Scout died but was revived. This is better than the last kitty, Ramon, who came out to me in post-op basically dead. Ramon's heart was revived, but he was brain dead. I HATE this anesthesia stuff....

Scout's coloring is good - good gum and tongue color so I know he is getting enough oxygen on his own.

I wish we had people like you at a few veterinary clinics in Spain! We don't even have spay&neuter clinics here

Despite the problems he's suffered, Scout was very lucky to find somebody like you there to take him in...

I hope he continues to make progress, I'm sure you'll get lots of support from great people here who have experience with cats with similar problems. Sorry I can't be of much use in this case but I'm getting good at searching out info on the www, so let me know if you need anything.

really think his vision may improve just like the rest of his brain, as it shakes off the assault. Even Spunk, my blind punk, who has the worst corneal scarring anybody's ever seen from conjunctivitis and eye rupture, has some vision (but hers is limited to light/dark, although she CAN recognize by sight which siblings she hates and which she likes and react accordingly. Grrr.)

He won't nee pred forever, but I'd use it for, oh, maybe a week. The loss of blood supply would cause hypoxia, and probably brain swelling, along with a host of other nasty cascades. Now steroids are also used in humans after a spinal cord injury, so it's fast becoming accepted.

loafing is much easier.
with his head all the way up he might have trouble being stable. you coudl put him in that position & keep a hand to either side of him so if he starts to fall you can fix him. I bet if you do this for several minutes a couple times a day it would help, he'd learn how to correct the falling without getting hurt, and without being too scared.

Re Baycox: DO NOT USE the pigeon formulation!!! It will burn mucus membranes without proper dilution because it's meant to be cut in water. ONLY USe THE PIGLET formulation available without prescription from Austrailia and Canada. Definitely do your research first!!!!!